I am actually really hesitant to rate this one. Standalone, I'd probably peg it as a two-point-five (keeping in mind that the only things I rate a five are things that I think everyone should read, regardless of whether or not they would usually touch the genre in question). But it's very clearly the second book in a trilogy, and because it appears to rely so heavily on the first I am not comfortable pegging it with stars.

The imagery is beautiful; on the other hand, I find that the character development tells rather than shows. The story's interesting, but the secondary characters made me feel like I was coming in halfway through, and being talked over a bit.

(Note that I'm making this observation while complaining about how people pause a TV show to ask for explanations when they could get 80% of the meaning from context and trust to the show to toss up anything else relevant. I don't require explanations for everything, I just felt shut out by the way it was handled in this book.)

I'll probably pick up the first book at some point, and will come back and star this when I do. Until then, definitely worth checking out if you are interested in urban fantasy-horror, but be prepared for a somewhat choppy read.